Kill The Old Ones!

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The 2nd Hall: Hall of Comprehension was a large open-roofed hall that was largely empty.

It was spacious, too spacious, even. It could easily host hundreds of people without them touching shoulders.

This place looked and felt vastly different compared to the previous hall; it’s as if it’s from another world entirely.

Those who appeared here felt momentarily dazed and doubtful. Their experience from the previous hall made them suspect that there are some hidden danger mechanics here somewhere, prompting them to advance carefully.

But in truth, there was none. This hall and the previous one were completely different.

The only thing that’s worth their attention here lies at the very center of the hall.

There is a platform there, large and circular. It almost looked like a round table, even.

It’s as if the sun’s favorite spot were there because that platform was specifically more illuminated compared to the rest of this place. The platform looked nothing special, though.

The real attraction was the ghost moving on top of that platform.

It’s a projection, a ghost, whatever you want to call it, of a martial artist—a martial saint, if one were too finicky with the details.

This projection was faceless; it’s unknown whether they’re male or female, and truth to be told, those don’t matter. What it does is what the projection was doing.

The projection of the martial saint was practicing some kind of martial art. Its movements were fast, clean, and precise and almost looked like an art form.

It didn’t cause any disturbance. No flashy lights, no explosion, no outrageous chakra fluctuations, nothing of the sorts. It just cycles through movements so easily and so smoothly that it’s almost mesmerizing.

Paired with how sunlight seems to favor this silhouette, the final image almost looked holy and/or divine.

This is the next challenge that the contestants need to tackle.

They need to replicate whatever martial art this projection was doing. The better their comprehension is, the more points they’ll receive.

To the audience’s eyes, the truth was laid bare. The contestants who already arrived saw the projection and knew what they had to do, but there was a noticeable difference between them.

No martial art was the same so far. The projection of the martial saint performed different art forms. One contestant saw a combat art, another saw a defensive art, while another saw a movement art...

It differs from one person to the next. And since there are only a few who managed to arrive to the 2nd hall so far, the martial arts they witnessed had been unique to them as well.

Adrian Arclight was a simple but also complicated sword art that even he found difficult to comprehend.

Lucian Skyrend saw a defensive spear art that opened up a new world of possibilities for him.

Elena Frostmere saw a water/ice-based movement artwork.

Sieghart Fletcher saw an auxiliary martial art that provided a short burst of additional strength for the user.

Aria Carmichael started learning a sword-and-lightning-based martial art from the projection of the martial saint.

And Lily Anne Heartveil saw an agility-based sword art that’s right up her alley.

In some ways, the martial arts that each contestant encounters seemed to fit their preferences. Alas, that couldn’t be confirmed right now since there are still too few who advanced.

Another thing is that there was no time limit here. The only true time limit was the five-day duration of the 2nd round. It’s up to the contestants how long they’d spend on each hall. Meaning that these trials, these halls, also tested how they prioritize their mission according to their abilities.

**

More time passed and soon, more contestants arrived at the 2nd hall.

This also meant that enough time has passed for those who came earlier that they’re ready to move to the next hall.

The 3rd Hall: Hall of Endurance.

Unlike the previous hall, this hall was designed to be the same across all contestants.

They will arrive in a hall with a massive wall up ahead. That wall occupies the rest of the world, it seems, with how big it was. There was no other way forward, except, of course, climbing the ladder that almost seemed carved into the wall itself.

Searching for another way up or through was useless. There were invisible walls on the edges of the hall that could not be passed or destroyed. The exit to this hall was up there, and there’s no other way to it. Just that, that one ladder.

Unlike the previous room, however, there is a hidden mechanic in this hall.

The height of the wall isn’t fixed, and so too was the length of the ladder.

The hall’s exit won’t show itself unless the contestant is truly and utterly approaching the limits of their endurance. This means that so long as the system sensed that they could still climb, the contestant wouldn’t see the end of the wall or the exit.

As for the point rewards? That depends on the total distance the contestant climbed. Of course, the maximum was 700 points as per the rules stated.

This hidden mechanic was explained to the audience but not the contestants themselves, for the sake of the tournament’s spirit.

Thus, the audience and the supporters rooting for their favorites could only pray that their preferred contestants get the hint or do their best.

Slowly but surely, the contestants trickled to the 3rd hall and began their ascent. Some started fast, some started slow, some maintained a pace. Regardless of their speed, the climb was the same, and the end seems to remain out of sight.

Some stuck to counting each step they took; some tried distracting themselves with other matters in hopes of forgetting the creeping exhaustion in their bodies. Others were trying to analyze the rules of this room.

As more and more contestants began their climb, a few had already reached their limits.

Some couldn’t even get more than 200 points, but there were also others who were still going strong even though they’d already climbed more than twice the amount of steps as those who had given up already had.

As they passed more halls, the differences between the participants and the gap were slowly revealing themselves.

**

The 4th Hall: Hall of Judgement will be the nightmare of the majority of the contestants.

Upon arriving here, they will immediately notice a difference. The hall was humble and small. The ceiling was low, and the interior looked simple but still felt ceremonial.

There was but one seat in the middle of the hall. The lights were dimmed, and there’s this faint sense of mystification surrounding this place.

The seat in the middle was an invitation. Sit upon it, and be judged by this hall.

The moment they sit on the seat is where the nightmare begins.

It wouldn’t even take a second for them to be pulled into an illusion. It doesn’t matter whether their willpower was strong or not; even those whose talent specifically gives them high resistance against illusions will become a victim here.

Resistance to illusions was futile, and there’s no immunity for the illusions they were about to experience either.

The moment they’re within the illusion, they will forget everything they knew about reality. They will be fully immersed in the world of illusion. Only a sliver of their instincts and the small influence of their will would be allowed to pass through the illusion.

None will be enough to actually wake them up from the nightmare they were about to face.

The illusion will test their character to the extremes. They will be pulled inside a very realistic world that will push their morals to the limits and test their bottom line.

These illusions won’t be displayed to the audience. Only the contestants will know what they’re experiencing, and it’s completely up to them whether they’d want to reveal it later or not.

For now, though, their experience was deeply personal. And it may or may not break them once they wake up from it.

The points they’d earn depend on how much they were able to stay true to themselves.

Since these halls were created by the World System, and the World System profiled every single person participating here down to their subconscious depths, it could perfectly calculate how to grade everybody’s performance.

The contestants may spend days, weeks, months, or years in the world of illusion, but in reality, only an hour will pass, making this hall the least time-demanding one.

The hidden mechanic of this hall is that the contestants have three chances to be tested. If they’re not satisfied with their previous performance, they would have two more attempts to change it so long as they ask for it.

If they left the hall without asking, they are automatically accepting the initial verdict.

Some contestants discovered this on their own, while others obviously didn’t.

Regardless, the reactions of the participants when they woke up from the nightmare were quite something. It was clear that whatever they experienced was far from being pleasant, as some contestants experienced an emotional breakdown on live broadcast upon waking from it.

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